


What The Cameras Don't Show

by spaceorphan



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-19 22:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2405927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceorphan/pseuds/spaceorphan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A twist on the JAM story. What really happened when the cameras weren't rolling. Takes place before and during the Pilot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What The Cameras Don't Show

**Author's Note:**

> One of my favorite things that I ever wrote.

Monday

Pam Beesly woke two minutes before the alarm went off. For a second, she had forgotten where she was but the morning sun reflecting off the tiny diamond on her left hand immediately reminded her. A smile came to her lips as she remembered the previous night; the anniversary celebration, the proposal, and after…

The alarm went off, the soft melody of an old 60’s love song disrupting her memories. As she reached over to punch the snooze button, she heard a low groan behind her. She turned over to see him curled up, holding his pillow tightly, keeping his eyes stubbornly shut. She snuggled closer to him, not liking the distance they created between each other during the night. 

“Hey,” she said softly, running one hand through his hair and over his cheek. 

He grinned but his eyes remained closed. “I don’t wanna get up,” he protested. 

Her fingers lightly traced over his bare chest. “You know, there are benefits to getting up,” she said playfully as her hand trailed lower.

One eye shot open, his grin became wider. “Alright,” he challenged. 

Pam laughed. “I wish we didn’t have to go to work. I want to stay right here with you.”

“Who says we have to go anywhere?” he asked, now fully awake. He wrapped one long arm around her waist to pull her closer. “I think the continual celebration of our three year anniversary and brand new engagement is in proper order.” He leaned in to give her a gentle kiss. 

She looked adoringly at him and knew she loved the man beside her more than she could ever express in words. She didn’t believe she would ever top such a perfect moment and lamented the fact that jobs and reality would eventually burst their idyllic bubble. She kissed him back before regrettably pulling away. “You know I want to stay here, but we have to go in today. Those documentary people will be here this morning,” she reminded him.

He scoffed, not letting her squirm away so easily. “They don’t need us there. I’m sure they won’t pick our boring branch anyway. Nothing to worry about. Besides, what interest is there in a documentary about an average office?”

She gave him a half-smile. “Well, the same documentary crew filmed a place over in England and it was huge over there.” 

“Well good for England. Let’s call in sick.” He gave her a deeper kiss as if to convince her that the only place that mattered was right there. She was sold and knew they wouldn’t make it to work on time, if at all.

“Hey, Jim?” she said between kisses.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

 

Tuesday

Jim Halpert glanced over his computer. She was still staring at him and it was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable. The producer of the documentary, an attractive woman not much older than himself, with blond hair pulled tightly in a bun, dark glasses and a navy pant suit, had kept her eye on him all morning. Currently she was talking with Meredith but he could tell she was only half involved in the conversation because her eyes kept drifting in his direction.

Wanting to shake the discomforting vibe he was picking up, Jim stood and walked over to reception and leaned over the desk to see what Pam was working on. “Solitaire?” he asked as he grabbed a few jellybeans from the candy tray Pam had put out. 

“It’s spider solitaire,” Pam explained, obviously a little flustered at the game. “I’ve never played it before and I can’t figure it out. This game doesn’t make any sense.”

Jim leaned in closer to examine the screen. “Oh, just put that five over on that six and you’ll free up a space.”

Pam clicked on the card and dragged it over. “How did you know how to do that?” she asked impressed.

“I just guessed,” he answered with a laugh.

Pam grinned. “So, you haven’t made it up here all morning. Actually busy?”

“Well, missing a day will cause the work to pile up, Pam,” Jim pointed out. “But, you know what? The day off? Totally worth it.”

Pam beamed. “Why don’t we just come in every other day from here on out? We could pull that off.”

“Oh definitely,” Jim agreed. 

“I probably could,” Pam said seriously. “I thought I would be overwhelmed today. No, in fact, I think I have less to do today than usual.”

“Well, more time to learn solitaire, I guess.”

“Oh, hey, I was looking up townhouse options this morning,” she said excitedly. They had determined yesterday that they should move in together and because neither of their apartments were big enough, they decided to look for other living options. “There’s this cute place call Arrow Wood at the south end of town. We’ll have to go check them out. They’re definitely in our price range.”

“Great,” he responded, loving how enthusiastic she was about finding a place quickly. “Send me the link. I can look at them between filling out expense reports.”

“Sure, I will just as soon as I finish this stupid game.”

“Four on the five,” Jim pointed out. 

“How do you do that?” 

“I’m just that good.” Jim threw a glance behind him and noticed the producer was looking at him again. “Man, I wish she’d stop staring at me.”

“Who, Meredith?” Pam asked, craning her neck up to see who he was talking about.

“No, that woman with the documentary crew. She’s been watching me all morning,” Jim explained.

Pam gave him a playful smile. “Maybe she likes you.”

Jim shook his head. “It’s more like she wants to use me as a test subject for her documentary.”

“Do you want me to take her on?” Pam asked. “I could totally take her.”

“Oh, I’d love to see that,” Jim responded. 

Pam laughed. “Well, Michael loves her. They haven’t even officially agreed to shoot the documentary here and he’s acting like this is his big shot. This morning he asked me if he thought Jennifer Aniston would watch the documentary and if she would be in to him.”

“Really?”

Pam rolled her eyes. “He’s worse than usual. This whole camera, TV show thing is such a bad idea. They’re encouraging his horrible behavior.”

“Well, hopefully they’ll lose interest in our company fast,” Jim said, taking a few more jellybeans from the tray.

“God, I hope so.”

The conversation was interrupted when Roy Anderson, one of the warehouse workers, came through the door. He was looking disheveled and unkempt as he slowly made his way to the reception desk. Jim noticed the dark circles under his eyes as he approached and wondered what had happened to the guy. 

“Hey man,” Jim said with a friendly smile.

“Where’s Kevin?” Roy responded half-heartedly. “He owes me some money from our game Friday night.”

“He’s back at his desk,” Pam answered. “You okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” Roy answered dismissively.

“What was that all about?” Jim asked when Roy had left to go to accounting.

“Oh my god, you haven’t heard about it yet?” 

“No,” Jim said slowly. 

“Well, apparently Darryl told Kelly who told Phyllis who told me about five minutes ago that Samantha dumped him last weekend,” Pam explained with a look of concern on her face. “Ten years down the toilet.” She snapped her fingers to emphasize her point. 

“That’s horrible.”

“Yeah,” Pam agreed. “And I heard she dumped him for some guy she works with, too. Phyllis was saying—“ 

“Excuse me.” The woman who had been staring at Jim all morning was now beside him at reception. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe we had the pleasure of meeting yet,” she said with a false smile. “I’m Jen Wilson, producer of the documentary and if I’m correct, the two of you are James Halpert and Pamela Beesly, the only ones not here for our introductory meeting yesterday.”

Jim and Pam exchanged glances. “Uh, we were sick,” Pam came up with quickly.

“Very sick,” Jim added. “Couldn’t get out of bed all day.”

Pam giggled but Jen didn’t look too amused.

“Because you weren’t here,” Jen continued, ignoring the fake excuse, “I’ll have to fill you in on what will be going on at your branch over the next few weeks. Jim, can I talk with you first?”

“Um, sure,” Jim responded. With a helpless glance at Pam, he followed Jen into the conference room.

Jim sat in the chair located next to the far window across from Jen and two scruffy looking guys that he hadn’t met yet. He sunk low in the chair, feeling as if he had been called into the principal’s office. If he had his way, there would be no documentary crew invading his daily life. 

“So, Jim,” Jen said in an overly perky voice. “This is Steve and Ed, they’re on my crew.” Jim nodded at the two men. They barely responded. “From now on, you won’t even notice they’re here. This is how it works: they will film for a few days and you just go about like you normally do. Occasionally, we’ll ask you in here for a few questions but other than that, there will be no disruptions in your day. Any questions?”

“Yeah, do you really think people will be interested in this?” he asked smartly.

Jen ignored the question. “Do you mind if I ask you a few personal questions, just so we can get to know you a little bit?”

Jim shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Uh, alright.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-five.”

“How long have you worked at Dunder-Mifflin?”

“Three years and a week,” Jim answered easily.

“How long have you been dating the receptionist?”

Jim hesitated a second, not liking the devilish smile on the producer’s lips. “Uh, three years and two days.”

“Wonderful,” Jen responded. “We might be able to work with this.”

“Work with what?” Jim asked, skeptical of anything the woman was about to throw at him.

“You don’t like us much, do you?” Jen asked, leaning back in her seat.

Jim thought about his answer carefully. “I just think you’d be better off with a more interesting subject for a documentary.”

Jen flashed him a wicked grin. “I think there are plenty of interesting stories right here.” Jim didn’t like the sound of that.

 

Wednesday

Pam stared at the screen, her face falling as she read the email. She had promised herself not to get her hopes up but she couldn’t help but feel disappointed as she read the letter. She clicked the email shut but didn’t feel like getting back to work. The day had been rough enough as it was and the email didn’t help any. 

Not a moment later, Jim was up at her desk with a look of genuine concern. She knew he read her well and she was grateful to have someone always there for her. “What’s up?” he asked, trying to give her a comforting smile.

“I didn’t get in,” she responded solemnly. 

“Aww, Pam…”

“I mean it’s fine,” her voice was a little too high for it to be fine but she didn’t want to become emotional at work. “Really, I don’t think I ever expected…”

He gave her a sympathetic look. “Alright, so you didn’t get in. That’s not the only place you can study art. In fact, any school that doesn’t want you is not worth going to.”

She gave him a half smile. “Thank you,” she said. “But, still. It stings a little.”

“You’ll find some place,” Jim assured her. “I promise.”

“Can’t we just turn back time and have it stuck on Monday?” Pam asked as she looked at the big pile of papers needing to be copied. 

Jim grinned. “The job wearing you down, Beesly?”

“Jan called again,” Pam explained. “I don’t know what’s going on but I’m worried about our jobs. And Michael is not being any help. All he does is stay locked up in his office practicing his camera faces for when the documentary crew films on Friday. I had to cancel two conference calls because he was busy talking about camera angles with the producer. Plus, I have all this stuff from accounting to copy. And we’re getting a new temp in and I have all this paper work to fill out because I know Michael won’t be bothered to deal with all the technicalities. And then, I check my email and get this stupid rejection letter…” She trailed off, feeling annoyed with the entire situation.

“Well, I’ll trade you places,” Jim offered. “Dwight has become almost unbearable. He keeps stealing my clients and it’s becoming an issue. If I loose any more accounts to him we’re not going to be able to afford a wedding. And, if that wasn’t enough, he won’t stop talking. You know the last Star Wars movie is coming out in May, right? All day he has been telling me every fact possible about the making of the movie. Then, he has gone into great lengths to discuss how this movie will never compare to any in the original trilogy.”

Pam scrunched her nose. “Why does he want to see it if he doesn’t think it’ll be worthy?”

“God, I have no idea,” Jim answered. “But I do know that he wants to be a Sith Lord for Halloween. Has his costume picked out and everything, including a two-hundred dollar exact replica light saber, which looks like a toy you can pick up for twenty dollars.”

“Really?” Pam said, finally cracking a smile.

“Oh yeah.”

Pam shook her head. “He’s crazy.”

Jim smiled. “You know, I think it’s time for another prank. You in?”

“Definitely. What did you have in mind?”

They weren’t far in their planning when Jen Wilson stepped up to reception with a fake toothy grin. Pam hated all the invasive questions she had to endure the previous day and really hated how the woman kept treating Jim as her pet project. Pam couldn’t wait until the documentary would be finished. 

“Can we help you?” Pam asked blandly.

“Can I talk with you both in the conference room for a minute?” she asked in an overly sweet tone. Pam scrunched her nose again but complied. The quicker they got this over with the better. 

Pam and Jim sat in the conference room staring at the producer for a moment, waiting patiently for her to say why she had brought them in. Jen tilted her head and let out a little sigh. “Well, as you know, we’ve been given the green light. We were originally going to shoot at your corporate branch but our benefactor loves the notes we’ve sent him on Scranton so this branch will be the main focus.”

“Okay…” Pam said, not sure where Jen was taking this.

Jen leaned forward and dropped the nice act. “Look, we get that the two of you are engaged and in love and all that but watching a happy couple on TV is, well, boring. So, our guys came up with a few ideas…”

“Wait,” Pam interjected. “Isn’t the point of a documentary not to interfere with the subjects?”

“Usually, yes,” Jen answered, not happy that she was interrupted. “But, we want to make this as intriguing as possible. Just about everyone at this branch has great filmable qualities. Except for you two. So, we were thinking that maybe the two of you could pretend that you weren’t dating.”

“What?” Jim asked confused.

“No,” Pam responded, shaking her head vehemently. 

“Now, wait, hear me out,” Jen continued quickly. “It’s not like we’re asking you to dislike each other. I mean, you guys have chemistry. Lots of it. So we thought we could sell a love story, just a little bit different than what you’ve got here. I’m talking unrequited love. Just think about it. Boy is in love with girl for years, girl is already taken but in love with boy. It’s hot, it’s sexy, it’s subtle, it’s great TV.” 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Jim said in disbelief.

“I’m not going to pretend to be in love with someone else,” Pam said firmly.

“No, you’re not getting it,” Jen insisted. “Here’s what we’re thinking. Pam, you’ll pretend to be engaged to someone else. And the both of you will pretend to be in love with each other, yet think it will never happen.”

Jim gave her an odd look. “Why would we have to pretend we’re in love? We are in love.”

Jen waved the comment off. “Yeah, whatever. The point is you’ll pine for each other. You’ll want each other. You’ll have to act like you can’t have each other. It’ll be like this great emotional affair.”

“Why would we ever go along with that?” Pam asked, thinking it was one of the dumbest ideas she had ever heard.

Jen looked at them hard. “I think I may have a couple of good reasons. Bottom line is this: we know that this branch is getting the axe. We’ve talked to your corporate office and it may be a few months, it may be next week. What really should matter to you is this documentary. Think of it this way, if the documentary airs, your branch will get a ton of publicity, not to mention if it does get picked up, our benefactor has promised to donate a generous amount of money to keep the branch open. The only thing holding us up is the two of you. Do you really want to be responsible for the closing of this branch?” 

Pam looked over at Jim. She didn’t want to be responsible for the branch but she didn’t want to be told how to run her relationship either. Jim didn’t seem to hold any answer for her.

Jen caught on quickly. “You know, if you are in, not only will the branch be compensated, but because you’ll be playing a part,” she used air quotes to illustrate her point, “you’ll be compensated as well.”

“How much?” Jim asked.

“Jim!” Pam exclaimed, shocked that he gave in so easily. He gave her a guilty look and she could see what he was thinking. They needed the money. No matter how much they hated it, neither wanted to be responsible for the loss of anyone’s job. And between a wedding, finding a new home, Dwight stealing Jim’s clients, and hopefully going to art school, if she was ever accepted anywhere; they couldn’t really afford to lose their jobs. Pam swallowed hard. “We only have to pretend in front of the cameras?”

“Only in front of the cameras,” Jen said with a grin as she reached into her briefcase for a few sheets of paper and a pen. “Now, if you could just sign these contracts, we’ll be all set.”

Pam reluctantly grabbed the pen. 

 

Thursday

Jim stood over the large, silver pot waiting for the water to boil and reflected on his day. It had been long, filled with countless number of interviews, a million papers to sign, and camera tests. The documentary was beginning to feel more like a reality TV show with how much direction they were getting. There were so many interruptions that he had barely sold any paper, which meant fewer commissions. He had hoped that he could just ignore all the hoopla but everyone in the office, except he and Pam, were all focused on the documentary and no one was getting any work done. 

Plus, today they had their briefing on the unrequited love angle they wanted to go with. Jim thought it was stupid but when he and Pam talked it over last night, they knew it was for the better. Jen had given him a whole pamphlet on what he should do and not do but he neglected to read any of it and the pamphlet was still sitting in his car. He understood the gist of it; that he would be pining for Pam. He felt he got the easy part and felt bad that Pam had to do more of the acting. But he kept telling himself that it was only for a short time.

In the distance, he heard his front door open and shut. “Jim?” he heard Pam’s voice call.

“In the kitchen,” he yelled out to her. 

He could see her form scurry into the kitchen. She was bundled up tight in her pink jacket, scarf, and mittens, and had snowflakes in her hair. “It shouldn’t be this cold in late March,” she shivered. She began to take off the mittens and scarf.

“How was dinner with your mom?” he asked.

“Alright,” she said as she shuffled out of her coat and laid it over the kitchen table. “She and dad are fighting again. I can’t stand seeing them do this to each other.” She came up behind him, placed her arms around his waist and rested her head on his back. 

“Well, are they at least trying to communicate?” he asked as he watched the bubbles in the pot finally begin to form.

Pam groaned. “I don’t think so. All mom did was complain. I tried to get her talking about wedding stuff but she didn’t even want to do that. I just--I don’t know.”

Jim sensed that Pam didn’t want to discuss it any further and they both remained silent for a moment. “Did you look over those notes from the producers?” Jim finally asked, trying to find another subject.

“Oh god, don’t get me started,” Pam said. “I cannot believe we agreed to do this. Do you know who they have me engaged to? It’s one of the warehouse workers.”

He didn’t like the idea of Pam having to pretend to be engaged to someone else. “Darryl?” Jim asked, hoping it’d at least be someone he could tolerate. 

“No.”

“Lonny?”

“Ew, no.”

“Madge?”

“Funny, no. Roy. Can you believe after everything he’s going through, they want him to pretend to be engaged to me? I feel sorrier for him than for us. He doesn’t deserve that.”

“Yeah,” Jim agreed. “I’m not liking anything about this set-up. I am, however, really liking your idea of time traveling back to Monday. Where do you think we can steal a time machine?”

Pam let out a laugh, which made Jim smile. He knew how rough this week had been on her. She let out a big sigh. “Hey, Jim, do you think we can check out those townhouses tomorrow?”

“Sure,” he replied knowing that looking at places to live would most definitely improve Pam’s mood. 

“Hey, Jim?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you watching water boil?”

Jim nodded over at the counter where a large bowl, a stapler, a World’s Best Boss mug, and four boxes of lemon flavored Jell-O sat. Pam immediately picked up on his intentions. 

“Michael too, huh?” Pam asked sounding impressed.

“Well, the producer said she wanted a show, right? I just thought I’d give them one.”

“That’s not going to take long, is it?” Pam asked as she slipped her hands under his shirt.

Jim quickly turned around to give her a playful grin. “Not at all.”

 

Friday

Pam hadn’t anticipated the day going so poorly. With the amount of preparation the documentary crew gave the office she would have thought that actual filming would have been a breeze but as much as she tried to ignore the camera crew, she felt as if they were always watching her. It didn’t help that they kept bringing her in the conference room every few minutes to ask her pointless questions and that her interactions with Roy were incredibly stiff because neither of them were in to their parts. Plus, her coworkers were acting more idiotic than usual. 

She could usually handle Michael’s childishness but today he had crossed a line. She had thought acting up in front of Jan had been bad enough but the fact that Michael thought he would come off as charming and impressive by pretending to fire her, in front of the camera crew and the bewildered temp, was too much to handle. 

On top of everything else, she had barely spoken to Jim all day. Even though the contract they had signed said they could talk as much as they wanted, with the cameras right there, it was easier just to avoid each other. She couldn’t believe, after not even a week of being engaged, that she was forced to ignore her fiancé. Every time she wanted to look up at him, she noticed a cameraman watching her every move. She hated it. Not being able to talk to Jim constantly was making her stress level rise and she wasn’t sure how long she would be able to handle it. 

She was glad that it was the end of the day. Everyone was gone, except for Jim who had been waiting for her. She came up to his desk to talk with him and she knew he was concerned when he saw her still red and puffy eyes but that discussion would have to wait. They both noticed that the documentary crew was still watching and they had to play their parts until they left the building. Their conversation was strained, neither of them able to hold on to the façade much longer. 

Pam took off first and waited just out side the business park doors for Jim to arrive. She thought about how they were going to look at townhouses that evening and how much she would show her appreciation of him afterwards. 

“Hey,” she said as he exited the building. She grabbed on to his hand.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked immediately. 

“Just a really crappy day,” she admitted. “I’ll tell you all about it later.” She motioned towards Jen who was standing next to her car looking for her keys. Jen’s head shot up and gave them a glare. According to their contract, they weren’t supposed to be showing physical evidence of their relationship, which included handholding. But because Pam knew the cameramen were still upstairs, she didn’t care. “I really hate this Jim,” she said as she walked him to his car. They had been told to take two separate cars but instead, they decided they would alternate one driving and the other walking a block to be picked up and dropped off. 

“It’ll be fine,” he assured her. He put a consoling arm around her shoulder. “They’re only going to be here a few days, then they’ll have their story and be gone. And I’m positive the show will do badly. We can’t be that interesting.”

“But what if they are here longer?” Pam worried. “I mean, the show could be a hit and they could stay for months. Years even…”

Jim gave her an amused smile. “I really doubt—“

“There’s no way I could pretend not to be with you for years.”

Jim placed an affectionate kiss on her forehead. “I love you, too. But I promise, this little show is not going to last years.”

Jim’s optimism was uplifting and Pam felt slightly better about the whole situation. She gave a glance over to Jen, who was now looking irate over the amount of PDA that was going on. Pam didn’t care and just to annoy Jen more, she pulled Jim in for a lingering kiss.

At that moment, the two cameramen came out of the building to see the lovers locked in their embrace. “What a shame we didn’t catch that on tape,” Steve complained to Ed. 

Ed let out a sigh. “Damn shame.”


End file.
